


What did you say?

by FreeShavocadoo



Category: HiGH&LOW (Movies), HiGH&LOW: the Story of S.W.O.R.D. (TV)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, M/M, kind of fluff, two gays reluctantly in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25132477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreeShavocadoo/pseuds/FreeShavocadoo
Summary: What exactly Ranmaru saw in him was a mystery to Takano, even if he could see that objectively, Ranmaru enjoyed a challenge.And a challenge, Hirai was.(AKA - Takano doesn't know what the hell he's doing, but Hirai definitely does)
Relationships: Hirai/Takano (High & Low)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	What did you say?

Some would say it was a simple case of opposites.

The sun and the moon, yin and yang, day and night.

If only.

To Takano, comparing himself to Hirai was like a spec of dust comparing itself to a whirlwind. There was no comparison, no commonality, no sense.

Where Takano was hard edges, scowls and glares, absent any false pretences and closed off from the world, Hirai was soft and pouty, whiny and self-important, convinced he deserved the world simply because he demanded it.

What exactly Ranmaru saw in him was a mystery to Takano, even if he could see that objectively, Ranmaru enjoyed a challenge.

And a challenge, Hirai was.

When Takano was angry, the members of Doubt who may have displeased him had the sense to hide in their rooms and avoid any potential contact, averting their gaze and lowering their voices.

When Hirai was angry, he’d make a point of cornering everyone in a communal area, going around to each person one by one and demanding an apology and revelling in the power it gave him, flouncing around with glee in the knowledge that there were few people who’d backtalk him.

Hirai was under no illusions as to the fact it was men’s fear of Ranmaru that usually stilled their hands against him, yet, Takano can’t help but feel like men underestimate Hirai far too much.

For all of his pouting and complaining, Hirai held absolutely nothing back when he felt backed into a corner. Biting, scratching, throwing sand and dirt, random flirtation to throw people off guard.

He was a fast little bastard.

Ranmaru had, of course, given up on the prospect of them getting along.

It’d been around two years since he’d strolled into Doubt HQ with Hirai at his side, smirking and acting as though he’d been there from the very beginning.

Two years of constant bickering, fighting, ignoring each other one minute only to be smashing a room up the next.

It was infuriating. For every step forward, they seemed to take several steps back.

And here, Takano finds himself again, picking up the slack in Ranmaru’s absence.

“Takano-chan,” Hirai sings, swinging into the room looking pleased with himself, “what are you doing?”

Usually more measured, Takano tries to see reason, if not for the fact he’d been tidying around in anticipation of Ranmaru’s return for the past week.

This seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“What the _fuck_ does it look like I’m doing, brat?” He snarls in response, slamming a pillow back down onto the couch and getting angrier when he realises it’s covered in stains.

_Fucking animals._

“There’s no need to take that tone with me.” Hirai responds, unbothered. “I didn’t realise you didn’t like cleaning, since you do it so often.”

Briefly, Takano wonders if he could wrap the cloth he’s using around Hirai’s neck, before he realises that it’s utter nonsense to do so.

It wasn’t long enough to wrap around his fucking neck.

“Every time I see you, you outdo yourself in your own stupidity.” Takano moves around the room sporadically, picking up odds and ends of rubbish from takeaway cartons and cigarette boxes.

Hirai seats himself comfortably on the couch Takano has only just made presentable, putting his feet up on the table that Takano has only just cleaned.

_I wonder if Ranmaru would notice if Hirai was gone when he came back._

“Can you hurry up?” Hirai picks up the remote, staring at Takano like he’s a mild inconvenience, “I’ve got a drama recorded.”

Takano wishes he had hair to pull out of his own head.

“You mean the drama I recorded…for _myself_?” His voice is rising steadily, the rubbish bag lying discarded near the doorway.

Hirai moves sideways to turn on the TV, as though Takano’s voice is but a mere echo in the distance rather than right in front of him.

It wasn’t the first time Takano’s love for dramas had been a point of conflict between them.

_He knows the second he sees the glow of the television that Ranmaru has done it again._

_It didn’t matter that Takano had reminded him in the days leading up to the drama, or in the morning, pleading that he’d be out all day and all Ranmaru had to do was record one episode for him._

_It was the season finale, he was allowed to be dramatic. After all, the only reason he needed it recording was because he was out doing work on Ranmaru’s behalf._

_He knows when he walks in that Ranmaru has done it again- that Ranmaru has overwritten the recording with one of his stupid fucking horror films._

_“Ranmaru.” Takano addresses him as calmly as possible, hoping his suspicions are unfounded, that Ranmaru of course, would remember to do this small favour for him, particularly after having fucked it up on several occasions before this._

_Surely, he’d have remembered._

_“Yo, Takano.” Ranmaru’s head leans back to stare at Takano in the doorway, relaxed as ever._

_Then, the recognition crosses over his face._

_“Shit.” He sighs, staring at the TV with a combination of annoyance and remorse. Well, as close to remorse as Ranmaru can manage._

_“Takano, wait-,” He says, as though sensing the annoyance emanating from Takano’s entire being._

_“Forget it.”_

_In a display of Hirai-esque bratty behaviour, Takano marches out of the room and heads straight for his own, walking right by Hirai on his way._

_“Takano-chan.” He follows Takano to his door, never one to be deterred by a mean face._

_“Leave me alone.” Takano replies, going to slam the door in Hirai’s face, having had the worst day he’s had in years. Bruised, battered and now with nothing to even end his day on a good note with._

_“I was going to say before you interrupted me,” Hirai’s voice gets even brattier, “that I have it on my TV.”_

_Takano pauses. “Why would you have it on your TV?”_

_Hirai walks down the corridor towards his room, bowl of popcorn in his hands, “does it matter?”_

_Instead of pissing away the one chance, even if it is as a result of Hirai, to end the day on a good note, Takano follows Hirai into his room._

_Hirai sits on his bed, eyeing up Takano near the door and rolling his eyes. He pats beside him on the bed, agitated._

_“Come on or you’ll miss it.” He glares at Takano._

_Taking his shoes and coat off, Takano sits on the edge of the bed cautiously, taking a moment to settle comfortably whilst Hirai sprawls further across the bed and presses play._

_Surprisingly, he doesn’t talk throughout the episode, occasionally stopping mid-mouthful of popcorn to stare at the screen with wide eyes. Maybe Takano finds it more endearing than he should._

_Reaching his hand into the bowl of popcorn, he feels Hirai’s smaller hand under his own._

_Then, the popcorn goes everywhere as they both recoil immediately._

_“What are you doing, you fucking halfwit?” Hirai scowls at Takano, as though he’d randomly decided to flip the bowl of popcorn over of his own volition, “this is why I don’t let you in my room!”_

_“Oh, you don’t let me in your room because you’re scared I’ll flip a bowl of popcorn over on your bed?” Takano seethes in response, standing up and brushing himself down._

_“Well now you’ve gone and ruined it,” Hirai stands as well, staring at the pile of popcorn across his bedsheets, “clean it up.”_

_“You fucking clean it up!” He retorts, heading for the door in the knowledge he’s probably going to have to come back in here with a trash bag._

**_Fucking hell._ **

Barely resisting the urge to kill Hirai is a constant task by this point, but it doesn’t make it any easier when Takano has to physically remove himself from the room to walk into the kitchen instead, despairing at Hirai and the state of the kitchen.

When he became Doubt’s housewife, he doesn’t know, but Hirai probably had a point in saying that people would assume Takano liked cleaning if he did it so often.

But if he didn’t do it, who fucking would? Ranmaru only liked compulsive stints of cleaning when he was on edge, and Ranmaru wasn’t getting out of Rasen for another two weeks.

It’s a good job he’d started early on the cleaning, though it’d all be a state again by tomorrow. He can’t help but think he ought to have words with them all.

Hirai’s head springs up around the doorway, eyeing Takano with disinterest.

“ _What now_?” Takano growls, scrubbing at the sink and imagining it was Hirai’s face instead.

“I was going to tell you that you need to stack the dishwasher.” Hirai says, matter-of-factly.

_Stack the…._

“And I love you.” Hirai swoops forward and kisses him on the cheek, grinning as he flounces back towards the door.

“What did you just say?” Takano’s mouth hangs open, the washcloth discarded in the sink as he stares in utter disbelief.

“I said **stack. The. Dishwasher.** ” He repeats, shaking his head at Takano. “And I love you.”

_I’m utterly fucked._

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why but....this happened...I guess? 
> 
> These two seem like they could be trope central, no shame.


End file.
